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James McNeill Whistler Nocturne in Black and Gold, the Falling Rocket 1875

Dr. D again. And wait, that deal was never even -legally- signed?

Dr. D: I know the U.S. hasn’t followed the law in 100 years, but let’s review the Iran Deal. A “Deal” with a foreign nation is supposed to be, for 200 years has been, and legally must be, a “Treaty”. Treaties under U.S. law are unique, as they are NOT to be brokered by the Congress and are a point of contention if Congressmen get involved, as you can imagine special deals and/or information leaks could damage the negotiating position.

This is one of the few things Congress doesn’t do. However, the deal, brokered by the President, is presented to the Senate and only the Senate, which is supposed to be the older, more stable house, and once upon a time when Americans were adults and the Senate was chosen by the State governments, this was true. Even with a Democratic election of Senators representing the people and not the States, (which is what the House is supposed to be) it’s the best we have.

So when Obama arranged the Iran “Deal”, he knew and did so against 220 years of history exclusively BECAUSE he knew the Senate would never approve an honest-to-God, legal “Treaty.” Worse, it was part of the reason the “Deal” was effectively secret, not overseen by anyone, and even John Kerry when asked what was in it said, “I don’t know.” You don’t know??? You’re the Secretary of State presumably brokering the deal. Who’s above you in the food chain that you’re not allowed to know? That was an interesting disclosure that the media – of course – never followed up on.

He also said, as the deal was never signed, it was “not legally binding.” Okay, yes, if the Senate does not approve it, making it therefore a “Treaty”, then it’s just a gentleman’s handshake verbal agreement and not binding. So…Iran therefore did NOT agree to stop weapons development, and certainly as proven did not agree to continue to use the U.S. petrodollar.

On the other hand, Obama DID send pallets of cash on 3 jumbo jets, and the U.S. prisoners were not released until those planes touched down. So Iran can legally reverse their weapons development, while you’re not going to get that cash back. That sounds like a terrible, terrible deal, a no-deal deal no one read and no one signed. And they’re upset this is cancelled? Why? What’s in it? Can we finally know now? Nope.

My personal theory is that since General Wesley Clark’s reveal that they planned 7 MENA wars, and named them in order back in 2001 and were to culminate in attacking Iran by 2013, they were years behind schedule on this world-domination murder-death play. In order to keep Iran in a holding pattern, still lacking viable nuclear weapons, they had to pay them billions and billions. Iran for their part knew they would win Syria anyway, so they were happy to play along and get a few billion dollars. And a lot of those billions Obama “gave” to Iran were Iran’s money anyway.

What? Yes, the U.S. confiscated and “froze” (actually stole and used) Iran’s western assets in 1979, and by law Iran was almost certainly owed this money plus interest. Then if I’m any judge of world politics, the negotiating parties — U.S., France, Germany, Iran, took these pallets of unmarked bills and used them for slush fund payouts among the various power factions, and about $50 ended up with the people.

This proved to be true, as Iran immediately ignored the U.S., moved into Syria, dumped the dollar, traded in Euros, and arguably continued weapons (missile) development. …But like I said, the important part got through: free cash payoffs, untraceable, back to the “right” people: the “Deep States” of the U.S., Iran, France, etc. You can see this in Macron and Merkel’s top priority and panic to force this deal to continue. And why? Isn’t that money gone? A one-time thing? Hmmm.

Back to the present, the nation is all agog about “ending” the Iran deal. You mean the deal we didn’t have? The one that was neither signed nor (generally) followed? How can Trump end it? He can end it because it was never a deal, it was a side-agreement by a specific President, THAT’S WHY WE HAVE TREATIES. So that they are in law, hard to negate, and much more stable. In fact, the Senate told Iran this outright: “if you sign this, you know that as soon as Obama is out of office, we’ll just reverse it.”

That wasn’t exactly a threat, it was simply a fact. If you don’t enlist the Senate and 220 year-old legal processes, you effectively have nothing but a wink and a smile. Then, yes, it is easy to undo as the wind blows. Now why the Senate and Congress didn’t stop this wink, withhold funds, or impeach the President for subverting law and Congressional authority is another matter: the only thing here is that there was no legal agreement, widely reported by all parties in the public media, so what is Trump really cancelling? Something that never existed except in the news?

We have law for a reason and this is what happens when you don’t follow it, but after not following it for 100 or more years, everyone forgets. This ain’t rocket science, folks. You want an Iran deal? Pass one.

Treaty or no treaty isn’t the point; Trump has secured that the U.S.’s word cannot be trusted.
There were five other countries putting their word on the line also.
The other disturbing developement is, from one administration to the next there is alarmingly, no continuity; how does one carry out foreign policy in lieu of that?
Simple answer is; one can’t.
What is going on in the U.S. under Trump is a clown show; an evil, homicidal, clown show…

Raúl Ilargi Meijer
Aside from the very bad drama and blatent lies; not much difference at all; except for the theatrics in Trumpland.
I’ve seen, for the first time I can remember, some serious doubts re: the U.S.’s foreign policy, on the part of the EU member countries.
Openly questioning their relationship to the U.S..
Dare I say, whiffs of rebellion/independence?

Well, nothing holy about the EU, is there? Why try to please them? Just another bunch of sociopaths. And the US foreign policy was due for a redo anyway, though that is hard to accept. But the advances in weapons systems simply mean ever more unwinnable wars. And therefore a world breaking up into several unconquerable areas. Which will be forced to find ways to work together.

My God, I should hope so. The U.S. has broken every treaty they ever made, ask any Indian. If only Europe would break from the U.S., Europe, the U.S. and the whole world would be better off. That may indeed be the point. We’re cutting back to our borders, they’re on their own, they need to get the massage post-haste, and they’re not getting it.

However, the key here is “no continuity from one administration to the next”. And with a Treaty, there is and must be. That’s why they’re hard to make! They’re very serious and hard to break. If you want your continuity, then get the votes and pass one. It ain’t Trump’s fault Obama was a lazy sot who didn’t bother (or couldn’t because what was in it — a thing we still can’t read). That’s a surprise to exactly no one. Congress SAID THEY WOULD DO THIS. They went to Iran and TOLD THE IRANIANS. That means France, Germany, all 195 nations know. So if it was never legal and no surprise, who’s offended except CNN? Certainly not John Kerry, he (allegedly) doesn’t know what’s in it.

If I let you use my lawn mower, then want it back, is it yours? It’s not yours until you sign a contract. That’s not a reversal — the event never happened in the first place, and Iran knew it, Congress knew it, the French knew it and the Germans knew it. They all played a big game of let’s pretend while we siphon off what is reported to be $300B into unmarked, unnamed agencies.

Just another case of everything reported being false, and it makes it really hard to follow what’s going on when everything reported is a lie.

P.S. what kickback did Flint, Michigan get in this deal? A: Zero. $200M would have given then 100% new water and they got nothing. For $300B, 1,500 other collapsing cities got the same treatment. I’m one of them.